The poll's main finding is that “82
percent of Republican and Republican-leaning independents believe
marriage 'should be defined only as a union between one man and one
woman.'”

“While certainly, particularly among
young people, there is some shift on this issue, most Americans still
understand that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Bauer said
of the poll, which was conducted by partisan pollster Wilson Perkins
Allen Opinion Research.

“I think, Tony, we both agree that
there is an effort underway here to use polls not to measure public
opinion but to form public opinion and move it in the direction of
the demands of the gay rights movement,” Bauer said.

“Absolutely, and a lot of that is
done by the way the questions are worded,” Perkins said.

According to the survey, seventy-five
percent of GOP voters disagree that “politicians should support the
redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples.”

Bauer criticized most polls which show
a majority of Americans support marriage equality, saying they had
been “cooked.”

“One would assume if there had been a
big shift of opinion, the gay rights movement would say, 'Let's have
a national referendum, we'll prove it to you.' But the fact that
they will spend millions of dollars to keep [it] off of the ballot in
states a reaffirmation of the traditional meaning of marriage, I
think is further evidence that they know the polling data, which is
often being touted in contrast to the poll we've got today, are
really in many cases – the numbers have been cooked in order to
advance a particular social agenda,” he said.

Writing at Right
Wing Watch, Brian Tashman pointed out that “there is no
mechanism in election law or the U.S. Constitution to trigger a
national referendum on any issue.”